I liked “I Was a Rat,” but I did not love it. It felt very much like the motivation for the book was to have a go at the tabloids (and heaven knows, I would want to if I was him), but it felt like it got in the way of the fun of the story a bit. We don’t have the same kind of tabloid news culture here, so my first thought when I read it was that whole aspect of the book would be lost on my kids. Still, I love the play with the Cinderella story, and the character of the Rat Boy was wonderfully drawn.

Interesting, I had the same reaction with his ‘The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ’, that is, his only reason for writing it was to have a go at the Christian story. It didn’t seem to have occurred to him that he was condemning the church for re-writing the Jesus story to suit its own ends when he was doing exactly the same thing.

I’ve been thinking that a Philip Pullman binge would be a good thing. It started when I was examining one of his non-Materials books in the library, because it had been recommended to me, and then I pulled the next one off the shelf, and then the next, and…well, you know: they all looked good. And I had no idea there were so many from which to choose: what fun!